Best way to enjoy summer? Take your time

Been staring at a blank computer screen for – well, gosh – I don’t really want to say how long now. Too long. I don’t think this is writer’s block slowing me down. It’s more like so many topics and the misgivings of if any of them would really develop. I don’t worry so much about my time, as yours. If this week’s effort falls flat in your estimation, will you give me another chance next week?

What’s given me considerable pause is that when I named my file, starting with the date it should publish, it was more of a shock than it should have been to key in 07-27-17. Summer’s practically over and we’re headed for the start of school like we’re on the downhill side of a roller coaster ride.

To quote from a poem my friend Rick Smith wrote way back in 1973, carefully saved in my scrapbook, “After the summer, there’s got to be a fall.”

And fall’s good too. It’s just that – and this happens every summer – I start out with the whole long bucket list of things to do, places to go, people to visit “this summer.” Then suddenly – Bam! It’s late July and I haven’t crossed many (if any) of the things off the list.

Except, as I’ve gotten older, I’ve learned a couple of good tricks. One of the standards for my list is to not be overly ambitious. So I put things on the list that are no big effort.
I suppose I could make the list super simple. Just put one thing on it. Heck. I can remember one thing. I wouldn’t have to write it down.

Or, if I did, I’d simply write, “Enjoy as much as you can as often as you can.”

One of my favorite summer treats is cantaloupe mixed with cottage cheese, sprinkled with pepper. Makes a lovely breakfast. But every time I cut the rind of the melon, I remember my mom doing that very thing more than 50 years ago. I remember the summer I was probably 12, when she decided I was old enough to learn how to do it. It was a big deal, you know, and a safety no-no because it required pulling the paring knife toward me. I could have cut myself.

I remember those days when Pecos cantaloupes were cheap and plentiful. In the evenings Mom would put chunks in the blender with ice cream. Now that’s good eating. But now, savored with the good memories, it’s truly, as Mom would say, “to die for.”

There’s a steady and constant dart in and out of hummingbirds at my feeder. The last couple of years, the hummingbirds have been brown, not brightly colored, and they perch on the little plastic bars in front of the flower-shaped feeding spouts. They stay awhile and enjoy the sugar water instead of drinking in flight and hurrying off.

Hardly a five-minute span passes before one is gone and another comes. I watch every chance I get and am impressed and delighted with each visit. I’ve realized because of this, the wisdom of taking time to enjoy, instead of “sparing” the time to do what I want to do but failing to really stop and enjoy the process.

I’ve had enough slow-down for some of the best Sunday afternoon naps I’ve ever slept; a diminishing of the usual hurry to just rest a bit and let things be. A week of play with my younger granddaughter; long talks and lazy floats in the pool with my older one. Cold watermelon and garden-grown squash and tomatoes randomly cut, peeled or sliced for a too-hot-to-cook kind of supper. Homemade ice cream with my neighbors; porch sitting with my old friends.

Summer is flitting by. Hope you take the time to enjoy it and make a few memories. Just be careful not to cut yourself with a paring knife.

Candace Cooksey Fulton is a freelance writer in San Angelo. Contact her at ccfulton2002@yahoo.com.